Performing and Healing in Antiquity

Performing and Healing in Antiquity

École française d’Athènes, 29 April 2026 – h. 9.30

Salle des conferences / Αίθουσα εκδηλώσεων

The workshop explores the relationship between ritual and therapy in the ancient world, highlighting how diverse healing practices and rituals share a deeply performative nature. Through gesture, voice, and collective participation, ritual acts as a medium of transformation and healing, understood in physical, psychological, and social terms. The workshop examines how the sensory and theatrical dimensions of ritual contribute to its therapeutic efficacy. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, it aims to rethink the interplay between performance, religious experience, and healing practices across the ancient Mediterranean and its cultural continuities.

 The workshop will be accessible online at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T4hm9VEvRuKO7xYO8xHdMQ

Program:

9.30–10: Christy Constantakopoulou, Luigi Lafasciano (Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ερευνών / National Hellenic Research Foundation)                              

Performing & Healing. New Hermeneuthical Approaches to the History of Ancient Healing Cults

10-10.30: Milena Melfi (University of Oxford – Ioannou Center for Classical and Byzantine Studies)

Words, Performance and Commemorative Practice in the Inscription of Isyllos at Epidauros          

10.30-11: Angela Bellia (University of Palermo – Department of Cultures and Societies)

Music, Ritual, and Healing: Sensory Perspectives on the Asclepian Cult

11-11.30: Discussion

11.30-12: Coffee break                                 

12-12.30: Donatella Tronca (University of Bologna – Department of Cultural Heritage)

Dance, Possession, and Therapy between Antiquity and the Middle Ages

12.30-13: Luigi Lafasciano (EIE/NHRF – Institute of Historical Studies)          

Theatre, Healing and Epiphany in the Ancient Mediterranean: The Performative Dynamics of Therapeutic Rituals

13 -14: Roundtable / Discussion–

Luigi Lafasciano

Post-Doc Researcher in Archaeology and Religious Anthropology

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Έθνικο Ίδρυμα Ερευνών (National Hellenic Research Foundation)

48 Leoforos Vasileou Konstantinou

11635 Athens

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 Founder and Director

The Diakron Institute – for Cross-cultural Exploration and Interdisciplinary Studies

9216 Lawnview Lane – Laurel, MD 20708 (United States)

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Skype: luigi.lafasciano

Email: lglafasciano@gmail.com – thediakron@gmail.com – llafa@eie.gr 

Website: www.diakron.org